More Early Spring Activities

After the initial work up last week of the winter rye cover crop, it was time to work in some mushroom soil. Here is what two yards looks like when spread out just before tilling.

And this is after two perpendicular passes with the tiller. After it sits for a week or two to give the rye time to rot in, it should be good to go.

And time to edge the strawberry bed. Once the crowns take off the sides will be filled in with straw.

The weeping cherry is in full bloom and the honey bees are really going after it.

 But it's still a bit early for the fruit cherries to be in bloom. This is a good thing as we're having a late hard freeze tonight. These are buds on the Regina tree which is now five years old and about fifteen feet tall. Unfortunately, it requires a pollinator, and the Blackgold we planted next to it died two years ago. It was replaced with two more last summer. Not sure if we'll get any fruit this season or not.

UPDATE: More COVID-1984

 While the COVID-1984 lockdown madness has been interesting to say the least, working from home full-time has totally changed the gardening process. The biggest change being able to keep a closer eye on things like applying organic pest control on an almost daily basis (due to poor persistence and rain shower wash-off). And slipping out at lunch time to do some daily weed pulls. This makes weekend maintenance much easier.

The first year (2020) was novel enough to keep me motivated. But as the pandemic dragged into the 2021 growing season, I got a bit lazy with secession planting and maximizing output. And I just didn't have the enthusiasm to do any posts. But as Biden-flation rears its ugly head, I hope to do a better job this season of keeping all aspects of the patch in full production.

So yesterday (March 23) was the first turn over of the over-wintered rye cover crop. The key to this process is to cut back the growth before attempting to till. Otherwise you get a mess tightly wrapped around the tiller tines and a gumming up of the whole process. I used the weed whacker to make quick work of this. Then its two rounds with the tiller.

Before and after shots.